Stanley Kunitz

Comments (0)

Transcript of Stanley Kunitz

Stanley Kunitz By Emily Kunst Poem 1: The War Against the Trees The man who sold his lawn to standard oilJoked with his neighbors come to watch the showWhile the bulldozers, drunk with gasoline,Tested the virtue of the soilUnder the branchy sky By overthowing first the privet-row.

Forsythia-forays and hydrangea-raidsWere but preliminaries to a warAgainst the great-grandfathers of the town,So freshly lopped and maimed. They struck and struck again,And with each elm a century went down.

All day the hireling engines charged the treesSubverting them by hacking undergroundIn grub-dominions, where dark summer’s mole Rampages through his halls,Till a northern seizure shookThose crowns, forcing the giants to their knees. Poem 2: End of Summer An agitation of the air,A perturbation of the lightAdmonished me the unloved yearWould turn on its hinge that night.

I stood in the disenchanted fieldAmid the stubble and the stones,Amazed, while a small worm lisped to meThe song of my marrow-bones.

Blue poured into summer blue,A hawk broke from his cloudless tower,The roof of the silo blazed, and I knewThat part of my life was over.

Already the iron door of the northClangs open: birds, leaves, snowsOrder their populations forth,And a cruel wind blows. Poem 3: I Dreamed that I was Old I dreamed that I was old: in stale declension Fallen from my prime, when companyWas mine, cat-nimbleness, and green invention, Before time took my leafy hours away.My wisdom, ripe with body’s ruin, found Itself tart recompense for what was lostIn false exchange: since wisdom in the ground Has no apocalypse or pentecost.I wept for my youth, sweet passionate young thought,And cozy women dead that by my side Once lay: I wept with bitter longing, not Remembering how in my youth I cried. Kunitz's Life Analysis: The War Against the Trees Original Poem The farmer was leaving the trees aloneHe was supposed to return after his shiftThe trees longed for the farmer's care.

A tree cannot survive with outIts roots to guide and feedThe tree will soon wither away.

All the other trees are tallerTheir roots are in tact and healthyThe dying tree doesn't know its path.

Dig up the dirt, it is dirtyFull of bugs and germs it's uselessThe other trees don't see the harm.

Soon the dirt contaminates allMany trees die left and rightThe dirt is evil; soon all the trees are gone. born 1905took part in World War II- this influenced his writing in many of his poemsFather committed suicide-also had a big impact on poems1943: drafted to US Army- cause of his hatred towards the governmentwriting began simple, but became more complexdied at age 100 on May 14, 2006 Stanza 1happy moodtrees very tall- they seem to touch the skythe bulldozers are "drunk" on oil and don't pay attention and "abuse" the soil

MeaningEverything seems okBulldozers represent people not paying attention to the war victims and veterans Stanza 2bulldozer continues to destroy and ignore the plantsthe forsythias then hydrangeas destroyed, but ahead is something harderMeaningpeople continue to ignoreforsythias are the first line, hydrangeas the second lineharder challenge is ahead Stanza 3trees continue to be cut downtrees are strong until they are cut downMeaningpeople are still getting hurtpeople lose power after disaster Things to Cover 3 of Kunitz's PoemsKunitz's LifeAnalysis of The War Against the Trees (stanza by stanza)Original Poem3D Object Used freeverse, imagery, metaphorsWar influencesHatred towards governmentFather's death Influences and Writing Style